The feature article of this issue is another excellent paper by the
Pentecostal A/G pastor Jacob Prasch called "Judge Not?".

In our time, when the New Age core value of "tolerance" has successfully
inoculated many Christians and their churches, it is refreshing to
be
reminded what we are to judge and what we are not to judge.

I am sending out this article because of the numerous e-mails I receive
weekly. Many of them are from people who are very thankful for
the
apologetics and exegesis available on the "Deception In The Church"
web
site at:

Some of them are from people who are struggling but are truly searching
for answers.

Those who disagree, almost without exception, accuse me of being
"judgmental", quoting passages to me such as Matt. 7:1.

The following article contains much of my own defense on the subject
of
judging. My highest authority has always been Scripture.
I agree with
the Reformers who went back to "sola scriptrura" and "sola fide" in
the
face of tradition and pronouncements by the magesterium being made
equal
to the Word of God. Through this lens perhaps it will become
more clear
to you that my opinions are not what I use to judge but rather God's
Word. My opinions do not matter nor do they carry any weight.
Only
God's Word stands forever. I have never even thought of judging
whether
someone will or will not go to heaven. I pray for my friends
and my
enemies that they all may come to a full knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Nor
have I called anyone "devils" like the leaders at Brownsville A/G and
many on TBN. I am not judging "hupo-krites" (hypocritically)
because I
am not doing nor am I advocating what they are doing and advocating.
You cannot judge hypocritically if you are not doing what someone else
is doing. But I do judge in the ways the Word commands us to
judge,
which Rev. Prasch does a good job of detailing. As he puts it
so well:
"It is not a right, it is not a priviledge, it is not something that
is
advisable. We are commanded" to discern and to decide.

I hope this study will help you to see through the "whitewashed walls"
constructed by the leaders of the Third Wave so they can attempt to
hide
from being brought in line with the Word of God. I am grateful
to Rev.
Prasch for helping cut through this issue once again. We owe
him a debt
of gratitude.

If the HTML file does not appear follwing this introduction, you can
browse it on the web at:

html://www.netpci.com/~ssimpson/judgenot.html

In Christ,
DITC

J u d g e N o t ?
BY JACOB PRASCH

DO
NOT SPEAK AGAINST ONE ANOTHER, brethren. He who speaks
against a brother, or judges his
brother, speaks against the law,
and judges the law; but if you
judge the law, you are not a doer of
the law, but a judge of it (James
4:11).
Do not speak against one another. Do not speak against your
brethren. Do not judge your brother.
Is that what it says? Look at
verse 4 of the same chapter.
You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the
world is hostility to-ward God?
Therefore whoever wishes to be a
friend of the world makes himself
an enemy of God (James 4:4).
You adulteresses!
Do not judge your brother!
>From the pen of the same apostle, in the distance of a few
paragraphs, in almost the same
breath that he is saying "do not
judge," James calls worldly churches
"adulteresses."

SPIRITUAL ADULTERY
James is probably the oldest book of the New Testament. We know
from its Hebraic background, from
the way it draws on synagogue
leadership structure and the Scriptures,
that it was obviously
written to Jewish Christians.
James is using the Hebrew concept of whoredom or harlotry.
Whenever Israel went into idolatry,
God calls it "adultery."
Idolatry equals spiritual adultery.
Israel was to be God's woman, in much the same way as the
church is the bride of Christ.
The church being unfaithful is like
Israel being unfaithful. That
idolatry is called "adultery." It is a
very strong term in Hebrew, a
very strong concept in the Jewish
mind.

BY THEIR FRUIT…
Every good tree bears good fruit; but the bad tree bears bad
fruit. A good tree cannot produce
bad fruit, nor can a bad tree
produce good fruit. Every tree
that does not bear good fruit is cut
down and thrown into the fire.
So then, you will know them by their
fruits (Matthew 7:17-20).
Jesus said that you can judge someone by their fruit. In the
same chapter, He says, Do not
judge lest you be judged (Matthew
7:1).
First it is, "Judge not lest you be judged," yet He goes on to
say, "You will know them by their
fruits." People involved with
Toronto and Pensacola say, "You
know Toronto/ Pensacola by its fruit
and there is good fruit from it."
Jesus never said that you would know a phenomena by its fruit.
He said that you would know a
person by their fruit.
More than that, even judging a phenomenon by its fruit, you can
see that it is not the fruit of
the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit
is self-control, not drunkenness
and lunacy.

CONTRADICTIONS?
Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous
judgement (John 7:24).
First Jesus says, "Judge not lest you be judged," but then He
says, "Judge with right judgement."
James appeared to contradict himself. Now Jesus seems to
contradict himself. Jesus said,
"Don't do it," then He tells you how
to do it. James said, "Don't do
it," straight after he did it.
Therefore you are without excuse, every one of you who passes
judgement, for in that you would
judge another, you condemn
yourself; for you who judge practice
the same things (Romans 2:1).
Therefore do not go on passing judgement before the time, but
wait until the Lord comes who
will both bring to light the things
that are hidden in darkness and
disclose the motives of men's
hearts; and then each man's praise
will come to him from God (1
Corinthians 4:5).
But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do
you regard your brother with contempt?
For we shall all stand before
the judgment seat of God (Ro-mans
14:10).
For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit,
have already judged him who has
so committed this [the guy in
question here was involved in
an incestu-ous relationship with his
father's wife ], as though I were
present (1 Corinthians 5:3).
Over and over, Paul says, "Don't judge." But then he passes
judgment.
Jesus says, "Don't judge," but then he says to do it and shows
you how.
James says, "Don't judge," but then he does it.
Why the contradictions?

GOD IS THE JUDGE
If God says in the Bible that something is wrong, and we see
someone or some church do that
thing, we are not judging them, it is
the Word of God that judges.
The Hebrew name, "Jehoshaphat" means Jehovah has judged. That
is not me or you judging. We are
simply acknowledging, "This is what
God says."
James was not calling worldly churches "adulteresses." The Word
of God says that, if we are attached
to this world, we are an
adulteress church.
Paul was not saying that the man involved with his step-mother
was immoral. Paul was saying that
the Word of God says that person
was immoral.
If God says that something is plainly wrong, that is not you or
me judging, that is God judging.
That is what it means when it says, "Judge with right
judgement." Judging with right
judgement means judging with God's
judgement, not with our own.
There is a big problem here -- there are things that I would
not do, but which are not necessarily
wrong for someone else.

PEOPLE'S OPINIONS
I know of a case where some believers, after their wedding,
went to a discotheque. (I would
not go to a discotheque unless it
was to give out tracts.) I did
not feel a peace about going, but I
am not going to make a big deal
out of it, no matter what my own
misgivings or feelings.
I know of another case in Ireland where, at a Christian
wedding, people danced. Other
people became indignant and began
yelling, "You're backsliders,"
and stormed out of the wedding,
creating a big scene. It split
a church. That is people judging.
The word "Laodicea" has to do in the Greek with "people's
opinions, people's judgements."
We have no right to make a judgement
of another person, but once God
says something is right or wrong,
that is not us judging.

ANAKRINO -- TO DISCERN
The Greek word for "judge" is krino.
If you put the prefix "ana" in front of the word "krino," you
get a variation on the idea of
judging, which is "to discern."
But he who is spiritual judges [anakrino] all things, yet he
himself is judged [anakrino] by
no man (1 Corinthians 2:15).
God, in His Word, commands us to anakrino. It is not a right;
it is not a privilege; it is not
something that is advisable. We are
commanded to do it. And if you
do not discern, you lack wisdom.
There is a reason why false teachers will not stand up publicly
and debate someone like Hank Hangraaff
or Dave Hunt.
People who will stand up and say, "That is not Scriptural."
"That is not right." "I discern
that this is not of God," are
practicing wisdom.
The reason why Michael Brown backed out of his debate with me
over Pensacola, and why Jim McConnell
backed out of his debate with
me over British Israelism is that
they lack wisdom.
Those who practice wisdom, cannot themselves be judged by
anyone. Because they anakrino,
they cannot be
anakrino-ed. That is why those
others are afraid of them.

DIAKRINO -- TO DECIDE
I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you
one wise man who will be able
to decide [diakrino] between his
brethren? (1 Corinthians 6:5).
Another prefix which changes the meaning of krino is "dia."
Diakrino means to "render a decision."
Is something right or wrong? Is someone's behavior right or
wrong morally? Is it Scriptural
or unscriptural? Is it of God, or is
it of the flesh, or of the devil?
The Holy Spirit speaking through Paul commands that we are to
diakrino.
We are not permitted to diakrino. We are not advised to
diakrino. We are not privileged
to diakrino. We are commanded to
diakrino. It is not that judging
is acceptable. Rather, to fail to
judge is unacceptable.

NOT ALLOWED TO GO TO THE SECULAR
AUTHORITIES?
About two months ago a woman and her husband contacted us, very
distressed. They had a four year
old girl who was the victim of
semi-penetrated sex in a church.
She was molested by a fourteen year
old boy, who was supposedly a
Christian and whose parents had been
going to that same church for
years.
This little
girl was devastated. She drew me a picture, and as
soon as I saw the picture, I knew
what it was.
Now, I do not have much time for secular psychology. I believe
in Biblical psychology, but I
do believe in psychology. Biblical
psychology is based in the book
of Proverbs.
If you want to know why human beings behave and act the way
they do, and think the way they
do, read Proverbs. That is the best
book of sociology and psychology
there is.
I can agree with human psychology to the degree that it is
based on Biblical psychology.
Secular psychology is godless, and
sees man as a two dimensional
being. It concerns me that so many
evangelicals have gotten into
secular psychology and pop
psychology.
The little girl drew a picture of a house. Inside the house
there were four windows and a
door. Each face inside the house was
female, there were no male faces.
And she drew a picture of herself, outside. There was no
pelvis. There was no pubic area.
That, according to pediatric psychiatrists, is a very frequent
characteristic of drawings by
children who have been sexually
abused.
Children of that age will say things with pictures and drawings
that they cannot express verbally.
No men and she herself had no
mid-section.
Her parents told me, "We don't know what to do. We go to a
Baptist church and the pastor
can't advise us because this four-teen
year old boy is a Christian, and,
based on 1 Corinthians, we are not
allowed to go to the secular authorities
about another believer.
So, according to his parents, we can't tell the police or the
court what has happened. We are
at our wit's end; we don't know what
to do. Our daughter is traumatized."

CIVIL LAW / CRIMINAL LAW
1 Corinthians 6 refers to Roman law. (The systems of
jurisprudence in Britain, Australia
and America are based on the
original model in Rome.) 1 Corinthians
6 is talking about civil law,
not criminal law; it is talking
about suing someone under civil law,
about litigation, it is not talking
about criminal law.
It is 1 Corinthians 5 that talks about an immoral person.
I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother [any
so-called Christian] if he should
be an immoral person, or covetous,
or an idolater, or a reviler,
or a drunkard, or a swindler -- not
even to eat with such a one.
For what have I to do with judging [krino] outsiders? Do you
not judge [krino] those who are
within the church? (1 Cor-inthians
5:11-12)
We judge those who are within the church, who are guilty of
immorality. Do not even associate
with the person. Chapter 6 is not
talking about criminal law. It
is talking about civil law.
That fourteen-year-old should have been dealt with under the
criminal law. His identity would
have been
protected by the court because
of his age.
If something was not done for that kid at the age of fourteen,
by the age of eighteen his life
would have been destroyed. He would
have been in an institution for
pedophiles.
But this fourteen-year-old had a chance. He should have been
brought before the authorities
for his own good, and also so that
the little girl could have seen
justice being done.
If this kind of stuff is not dealt with by the church
immediately, what is going to
happen when these people get older?
The victims are traumatized for their whole lives. It affects
their sexuality when they grow
up. And that church could not even
give a Biblical answer!
(It was probably a good thing it was a Baptist minister. He
could not give a biblical answer,
but if it had been a Pentecostal
minister, he probably would have
tried to cast demons out of the
little girl!)
I talked to my friend's wife, who is a Christian pediatric
psychiatrist, and I showed the
pictures to a Christian pediatric
psychologist. They both agreed
with the advice I gave the parents.
And the parents referred the matter
to the criminal authorities.
But what were these other ones saying? "Do not judge." "You
cannot go to the authorities about
another Christian and you cannot
judge another Christian."
What were they doing? Giving people a license to sexually abuse
little kids?
This is what happens when the church goes away from God's
Word.
We are not allowed to diakrino, we are commanded to diakrino;
but it has to do with more than
just people.

JUDGING PROPHECY
And let two or three prophets speak, and let the others
[diakrino] pass judgement (1 Corinthians
14:29). We are commanded
to judge prophecy.
But the prophet who shall speak a word presumptuously in My
name which I have not commanded
him to speak, or which he shall
speak in the name of other gods,
that prophet shall die.
And you may say in your heart, "How shall we know the word
which the Lord has not spoken?"
When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing
does not come about or come true,
that is the thing which the Lord
has not spoken.
The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be
afraid of him (Deuteronomy 18:20-22).
Jeremiah 14 and Jeremiah 28 says the same thing. Jesus warned
that there would be many false
prophets in the last days.
We do not stone them to death any more, but the sin is no less
serious. They shall die if they
do not repent.
We are not under the law, but under grace; but their
"ministries" should be stoned.
1 Corinthians 14:29 does not say that
we are entitled to diakrino prophets
or prophecies, rather we are
commanded to judge prophets and
prophecies.
On this basis, Rodney Howard Browne is a false prophet. On this
basis, John Wimber was a false
prophet. On this basis, Rick Joyner
is a false prophet. And on this
basis, Paul Cain is a false
prophet.
Now, that is not my judgement. I cannot krino anybody. The
things that God has said will
krino. I have to anakrino. I have to
discern. Is this of God or is
this of man?
No, it is not for me to judge. I have to diakrino, render a
decision on whether it is morally
right or wrong, by biblical
standards.
The founders of the Mormon cult and the Jehovah Witnesses were
false prophets; they predicted
things that failed to happen. The
Roman Catholic nun, Lucia, from
Fatima, in Portugal, is a false
prophet; she predicted things
that failed to happen. John Wimber and
Paul Cain and Rick Joyner (as
well as John Kilpatrick, Michael Brown and Gerald Coates) are
false prophets; they predicted things that
failed to happen.
Do I have the right to say that? No, not the right, but the
responsibility to say it, the
command from my God in heaven to say
it. That is not my judgment; it
is what God says about these
people.
Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my commandments." If you fail
to diakrino, you are failing to
keep His commandments. If you fail
to diakrino, you will let these
same people go on giving people
"words" from their own flesh or
from Satan. People like that should
be brought to account.

JUDGE RIGHTEOUSLY
Then I charged your judges at that time, saying, "Hear the
cases between your fellow countrymen,
and judge righteously between
a man and his fellow countrymen,
or the alien who is with him"
(Deuteronomy 1:16).
That was not advice; that was a command.
Just look at what has happened to our secular society.
Everybody is a "victim."
It does not matter that he got blind drunk and he was driving
at 90 miles an hour through a
village and killed a little kid on a
bicycle. He came from a broken
home: he is a "victim." It does not
matter.
I tried to talk to a prostitute the other day. "I do this
because my father hung himself."
That was her argument. "I came from
a bad situation." I said, "You
just told me that your sister goes to
university and she came from the
same background, and she thinks
that what you are doing is terrible.
Isn't she a victim, too?"
Nobody is responsible for their
own actions any more in society. But
how can we expect society to live
up to God's standards, when the
church will not live up to God's
standards.
I came from a bad situation. My father drank. I was a drug
addict by the age of sixteen,
and I have no doubt whatsoever that,
if Jesus had not intervened in
my life, I would be dead by now or a
destroyed person of some kind.
It is only because of Him that I went to university and got
married and did the things I have
been privileged to do.
Left to myself, I would not have amounted to anything.
Nonetheless, I am responsible
for my own life and my own choices.

SALT AND LIGHT
If the church will not uphold God's standards of
responsibility, how can we expect
our society to be any different?
If we are not upholding His standards, how can we be salt and
light to a society that has turned
it's back on God?
No wonder there is crime! The main reason for the moral and
social decline of our society
is not because of the unsaved people;
it is because of the lukewarm
church.

KRISIS -- HEAVEN OR HELL
There is a kind of judging that we are not called to do. The
Greek word is krisis.
For not even the father judges anyone, but He has given all
judgement [krisis] to the Son
(John 5:22).
The ultimate determination of heaven and hell belongs to the
Lord alone. We never krisis. We
are forbidden to krisis.

KRITES -- THE JUDGE OF ALL
But you have come… to the general assembly and church of the
first born who are enrolled in
heaven, and to God, the Judge [
krites ] of all, and to the spirits
of righteous men made perfect
(Hebrews 12:23).
God is the judge of all. Yes, there are people who are called
to judge, but God is the ultimate
Judge of us all.

HUPO-KRITES -- PHARISEES
If we are going to stand up and confront other people in the
church about something being wrong,
we had better make sure we are
not guilty of the same thing,
because that is another kind of
judging we are forbidden to do.
Here the prefix hupo is added to krites, giving us the English
word "hypocrites."
This is what Jesus meant when he said, Do not judge lest you be
judged. For in the way you judge,
you will be judged; and by your
standard of measure, it will be
measured to you.
And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye,
but do not notice the log that
is in your own eye?
Or how can you say to your brother, "Let me take the speck out
of your eye," and behold, the
log is in your own eye?
You hypocrite [hupokrites], first take the log out of your own
eye, and then you will see clearly
to take the speck out of your
brother's eye (Matthew 7:1-5).
We do not krites and we especially do not hupo-krites.

KRITIKOS -- TO DISCERN
For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any
two-edged sword, and piercing
as far as the division of soul and
spirit, of both joints and marrow,
and able to judge [kritikos] the
thoughts and intentions of the
heart (Hebrews 4:12).
Cells called erythrocytes are stored in the red marrow of big
bones, like the femur and the
tibia. On the outside there is the
bone and on the inside there is
the marrow. But in between there is
an area where, even with a microscope,
it is very difficult to tell
where the bone ends and where
the marrow begins.
The Bible says that the relationship between soul and spirit is
like that. Take prophecy: Was
that from someone's imagination, or
was it God's Spirit speaking through
their spirit? It is very
difficult to tell the difference.
Man is a three-dimensional being. You can separate a body from
a soul; but you cannot easily
tell where the soul ends and the
spirit begins.
When people say, "The Lord showed me this" and "God told me
that," it is difficult to know
if it is someone's imagination or
God's Spirit speaking to their
spirit. The mind is a good servant,
but a dangerous master. Many people
are caught up with things not
overtly demonic, but they are
prophesying from the futility of their
own mind.
We are called to kritikos -- to discern between the soulish and
the spiritual. The Word of God
enables us to separate the bone from
the marrow, the spiritual from
the purely soulish.

SUMMARY
Judge not? What does the Bible say?

1. We never judge from our opinions.

2. We are commanded to anakrino
-- we always seek to discern: "Is
this of God, or is it of the flesh,
or of the devil?"

3. We are commanded to diakrino
-- to render a decision as to
whether something is morally right
or wrong.

4. We do not krisis -- the Lord
alone decides who goes to heaven and
who goes to hell.

5. We are sometimes appointed to
krites -- but we are to remember
that the Lord is the Judge of
all, and we are to judge righteously.

6. We never, ever, hupo-krites
-- before we take a speck out of our
brother's eye, we make sure we
do not have the same speck in our own
eye.

7. We always kritikos -- we draw
on the Word of God to discern
between the things of the soul
and the things of the spirit.